Remember in school when we were taught about the value of the “free press”? Their special role in our democracy; the “watchdogs” of our freedoms, yada, yada, yada…

Well the gasket just blew completely off on that idea; and the ramifications are every bit as monumental as was the Gulf explosion.

Truly, it seems as if the entire world as we know it shifted this week. Many of us have suspected all along some sort of collusion within big media; and certainly we knew of the not so well hidden rascism beneath the covers of the NAACP, the Reverend Wrights, Jacksons and Sharptons, the Black Panthers, Nation of Islam, Holder’s “Justice” Department, etc.

Yet suddenly this week we have reached a confluence where the forces of Institutionalized Racism and Institutionalized Propagandizing have joined. And we are very fortunate that Rand Simberg was there to notice, and to write one of the best columns I have read all year. Below are some highlights–but you really do need to read the whole thing:

For a long time, while the bias in the media has always been obvious, I’ve always assumed that it was something in the water around the media coolers — that these people all lived in a self-reinforcing cocoon, marinating in confirmation bias, in which the correct attitudes were subtly rewarded and the incorrect ones not-so-subtly punished. If someone had told me that they actively conspired to drive the message, trumpet and even make up stories that served their narrative, and suppress those that didn’t, or undermined it, I would have said that it was both unnecessary and that even they weren’t that stupid.

During the campaign, it almost looked as though there were a media conspiracy to avoid discussion of Jeremiah Wright. Well, now we know why. Simply put, there literally was.

But the ugliest thing is this:

Spencer Ackerman of the Washington Independent urged his colleagues to deflect attention from Obama’s relationship with Wright by changing the subject. Pick one of Obama’s conservative critics, Ackerman wrote, “Fred Barnes, Karl Rove, who cares — and call them racists.”

Emphasis mine.

Again, it was always obvious that this was their tactic when confronted with dissident views, but also again, one would have assumed that this was just the way their minds worked (if that’s not being too generous a word) — not that they actively conspired among themselves to employ this odious tactic, which I’m glad to see that even some of them abjured when it was proposed so blatantly (though it seems more because they thought it would be ineffective than because they thought it was wrong).

I believe that when the government grows uncontrolled, and faster than the economy, the real economy and individual freedom shrink. I am a racist.

I believe that people make better decisions as to what to do with their money than a government bureaucrat or media elite or academic political appointee (or elected official) with no business experience does. I am a racist.

Moreover, I believe that the Second Amendment grants us the right to defend ourselves, and that much of the motivation for gun control was to disarm black people to prevent them from defending themselves against bigoted white people. I am a racist.

I believe that minimum-wage laws, other artificial wage-raising laws such as Davis-Bacon, and laws restricting the supply of labor such as the Wagner Act were driven by the desire to unfairly maintain the wages of white people over those of other skin hues through government force, and that regardless of intent, they have a disparate and devastating effect on racial minorities and are one of the major causes of their much higher unemployment rates and reduced wages. I am a racist.

I believe that uncontrolled immigration of low-skilled workers and a completely open border suppress wages at the low end of the labor market, adding to the economic plight of American citizens of color who were born here or came legally. I am a racist.

I believe that developing a culture of dependency, in which it becomes preferable for a young uneducated mother to marry the government instead of a man who has been shut out of the job market by other government policies, has devastated the black community over the past half century, and that this “liberal” policy is designed and has served to keep black people on a permanent white “progressive” plantation, unthinking slaves at the ballot box. I am a racist.

Most of all, my most racist, my most vile belief, is that people should be judged not by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character. I share that belief with one of the most notorious racists in history.

Do with me what you will.

Magnificent. To the day when more Americans have the cajones to speak truth as powerfully as Sindberg did today. Well done.

QUESTIONS FOR THE CLASS: ‘Fred Barnes, Karl Rove, Who Cares? . . . Call Them Racists’. Is this quote from Spencer Ackerman evidence of actual malice? Could it be invoked in a future libel case against Ackerman or his employer to show a habit of recklessness? Would you hire someone who had made statements like that as a journalist? If you did so, would that be evidence of reckless disregard?